{"id":741793,"date":"2025-11-23T17:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/digitalfoundry-2024-temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed"},"modified":"2025-11-23T17:31:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:31:30","slug":"temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nFor good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing – or TAA – has become a defining element of image quality in today’s games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or both? Whichever way you slice it, it’s here to stay, so what is it, why do so many games use it and what’s with all the blur? At one point, TAA did not exist at all, so what methods of anti-aliasing were used and why aren’t they used any more?\n<\/p>\n

\nFor around a full decade, from the late 90s until circa 2010, the best anti-aliasing you could get was SSAA – super-sample anti-aliasing. The principles are remarkably straightforward. To remove the jaggies, you deployed GPU resources to render the image at a much higher resolution, then downscaled. 8x SSAA on a 1080p screen effectively rendered internally at 8K (!), while 4x SSAA downscaled from 4K instead. It’s the brute force method, delivering a stable image with little sub-pixel break-up and pristine edges. When the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X arrived, Sony and Microsoft didn’t just sell gamers on the 4K dream, but also on the image quality benefits from SSAA by rendering at a higher resolution and then downscaling. <\/p>\n

\nHowever, the brute force approach means that a tremendous amount of GPU resources are required. Using Crysis 3 on an RTX 3070, native 1080p runs at nearly 200 frames per second without it being CPU-limited. However, 4x SSAA takes that down to 70fps, reducing to just 19fps at 8x SSAA. <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing – or TAA – has become a defining element of image quality in today’s games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or both? Whichever way you slice it, it’s here to stay, so what is it, why do so many games use it and what’s with all the blur? At one point, TAA did not exist at all, so what methods of anti-aliasing were used and why aren’t they used any more? For around a full decade, from the late 90s until circa 2010, the best anti-aliasing you could get was SSAA – super-sample anti-aliasing. The principles are remarkably straightforward. To remove the jaggies, you deployed GPU resources to render the image at a much higher resolution, then…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":741794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[1572],"class_list":["post-741793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-digital-foundry"],"yoast_head":"\nTemporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":260,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"digital foundry\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/\",\"name\":\"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News","description":"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News","og_description":"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?","datePublished":"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/"},"wordCount":260,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg","keywords":["digital foundry"],"articleSection":["Eurogamer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","name":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse? | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-23T17:31:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"For good or bad, temporal anti-aliasing - or TAA - has become a defining element of image quality in today's games, but is it a blessing, a curse, or","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/temporal-anti-aliasing-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Temporal anti-aliasing: a blessing or a curse?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1402146,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741793\/revisions\/1402146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}